Wednesday, June 30, 2010

I decided to be a good mom and allow the girls to do a craft that involved glue. And glitter. I don't enjoy glitter, because of the mess, but I endured and prayed that they wouldn't make too much of a mess.

We made cupcake liner fireworks as featured by No Time for Flashcards. All you need is white cupcake liners, red and blue markers, glue, glitter (gasp!), blue or black construction paper, and scissors.

Step 1: Using red and blue markers, color the liners in a festive patriotic patterns.

Step 2: Fold the cupcake liner several times and cut slits in it. We did Kayleigh's for her because a) She can't cut. b) She ran out of the room when she heard Wonder Pets come on.

A finished firework. So lovely and not as noisey as the real thing.

Step 3: Glue your fireworks onto your "sky."

Step 4: Add more glue directly onto the fireworks and then glitter away. It was Kayleigh's first time with glitter and she was quite pleased with herself. And, although she repeated stuck the shaker right into the glue, she didn't make too big of a mess. So I might let her partake again.

Would you believe that I didn't take a picture of the girls with their finished products? Shameful, I know. We had an outing to get ready for so I didn't get around to it. Maybe I'll take one tomorrow and post it in their weekly wrap-ups. Of course, those will be late since we're going out-of-town for the weekend. LOL

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Well we made a tot school comeback after our two-week break for Kevin's retirement. We did quite a bit this week, although all the activities were totally random. There was no theme, I just set up some trays and we did those along with some playtime with some her learning toys.

The only thing remotely "crafty" that we did was when she scribbled all over her sisters final math test and tried to cut up her certificate of completion. Thankfully she is not good with the scissors. =o)

Tot Trays

Her favorite activity of the week was putting flowered drink stirrers into the holes of a sugar shaker. She LOVED it. She did almost everyday. She had her dad do it with her and she carried those stirrers everywhere.

I made her a shape sorting activity using our giant buttons and a veggie/dip tray. I just taped a different shape into one of the compartments on the tray. She actually did it. Two weeks off did not derail her slightly more cooperative spirit of late. Woot

I set out some Foam Beads with some pipe cleaners and let her do some lacing. She did as I asked but she was done after a few beads. She never opted to do it again.

She also had a spooning tray. I put two Ice Cream Bowls and filled one with treasures. She then spooned, or dumped, the treasures back and forth. I didn't get any pictures though. She insisted on sitting on my lap whenever we did this.

She read/played with her Shapes on the Farm mag-NUT-tics book. We got our copy at Sam's Club. If they still have them, I'm going to grab some of the other titles next time.

We played with her Fruit Dominoes for the first time. She did a bit of cooperating and a bit of trying not to match them. LOL

We also had fun with her MATCHIN' MIDDLES game. I only pulled out shapes that she knew already.

She had fun matching teddy bears with her Teddy Mix & Match game. We got ours from Sonlight. (It's cheaper through Sonlight.) It comes with the p3/4 core but I just bought some of the manipulatives. We're holding off on cores for a while. LOL The p3/4 will be the only new one she gets. The rest will be hand-me-downs.

The pieces are adorable and really sturdy. Kayleigh loves them. She plays pretend with them and has the bears hug, kiss, and sing to each other.

Weasley was one of our many recent house guests. He was very cute, although certainly not the best behaved. Very much like Kayleigh. LOL

Although he's gone now, yay, in a way he lives on. Kayleigh has always liked to pretend that she's a dog, even when she was terrified of them. She'll "sit pretty", beg, pant, bark and lick. Weasley has inspired her dog behavior even more. Now she licks you then bites you. Thank you, Weasley for making Kayleigh's play more realistic.

At anyrate, I decided to remember Weasley the way that I like dogs best. In photographs. You get all of the cuteness and none of the smell, clean up, property damage, or wounds. The perfect dog, imo. LOL

So I made a scrapbook page of him for my mother and father-in-law because they love that little mutt despite it's deviant ways. More than they love the grandchildren I think. I'm going to print it and frame it for them. Or maybe do a few pages and make them a little scrapbook. I did take quite a few pictures of the furry beast. Merry Christmas!

I used the latest template from Confessions of A Homeschooler for the layout. I removed the butterflies to make it more doglike. Plus Weasley barked at butterflies and I found that annoying so I'm trying to block that out.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Hooray! We did it! We're free at last!! The last thing that we had to do was her final math test and she did it over the weekend so she'd be officially finished for the week to come.

So now I now longer have a third grader...sniff, sniff.

I was going to take some pictures of her holding her little "I finished core 3...I finished level blah, blah, blah..." but I haven't yet. Maybe next week.

So what have we been doing? I'm trying to remember.

I finished scheduling science for next year. Everything else is already in HST for next year. LOL I'm such a homeschool mom.

I've even printed out some of the lapbook units that we're using along with it and cut them out. I've also been doing some digital scrapbooking. It's so exciting to not have to clean up a mess when I'm finished.

Carisa, from 1+1+1=1, got me hooked on Tumblr. I'd like to explain it to you but it would just be easier if you clicked on Carisa's name in the previous sentence and let her explain. She's much better at it than me.

I'm primarily using it as a place to visually link all the great ideas I see on the web that I'd like to try with the girls. I like the visual aspect of the links rather then the list of names in my bookmarks. I can't remember what I liked about the site from a random name but I can recall them with a picture of the activity. It's probably my age. LOL

We've been going to the pool, Water Country USA, the Virginia Marine Science Center. I took pictures of the latter. I'll share some of them with you. I'll save the rest for Kayleigh's Tot School post.

And that is pretty much what we've been up too. Be sure to check out the other Weekly Wrap-Ups hosted by Kris.